Who Shot bin Laden: CNN vs. CNN

Yesterday, journalist Peter Bergen came out with a story on CNN.com and on their network asserting that Esquire's 15,000 word report on the Navy SEAL who killed Osama bin Laden was "BS", according to the story's source, a SEAL Team 6 member who was not on the bin Laden mission, and so was not in a position to confirm or refute "The Shooter" with any authority.

Bergen's story is directly contradicted by a story broken by CNN last fall based on an investigation by none other than Adm. William McRaven, head of U.S. Special operations and SEAL Team 6.

In a companion article posted to CNN.com yesterday, Bergen wrote further of the account of the raid offered by his new source. He quoted "a U.S. official familiar with the details of the raid" as saying that "the SEAL Team 6 operator's version is in line with what happened. That account 'has it right in my view,' the official said."

This U.S. official's corroboration, said Bergen, means that "the new account of the bin Laden raid provided by the serving SEAL Team 6 operator is essentially the same as in [Matt] Bissonnette's No Easy Day. Bissonnette says he was one of the first to run into the bedroom and he saw that the point man's shots had mortally wounded bin Laden. Bissonnette says he then shot the dying al Qaeda leader as he lay on the floor."

Thus Bergen, the author of "Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden — from 9/11 to Abbottabad," advances Matt Bissonnette's version of the raid as the most credible.

Bergen's report, however, is directly contradicted by his own CNN colleague, longtime Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr. Starr reported last September, in a CNN exclusive, that a review of the mission by the head of US Special Operations Command, Admiral William McRaven, had determined that "Bissonnette was wrong" in his account of the raid. As she wrote:

Adm. William McRaven took the extraordinary action more than a year after the May 2011 raid in Pakistan in response to "No Easy Day," authored by former SEAL Matt Bissonnette, who tells about his participation in the operation.

In a dramatic passage, Bissonnette said that bin Laden was on the floor when he and other SEALs entered his room in the safe house in Abbottabad, having been shot by another SEAL when he had peeked his head into the hall as the team approached.

Bin Laden's body lay at the foot of the bed, twitching and convulsing, the book said, adding that the SEALs, including the author, shot him again until he was motionless.

That account differs from what U.S. officials have said publicly since the raid.

McRaven, the head of U.S. Special Operations Command, went back to the team - including the lead SEAL, or "point man" - in recent days to make sure Bissonnette did not have any information they did not know about.

Senior Pentagon officials, who declined to speak for attribution because of the sensitivity of the matter, told CNN they have now concluded Bissonnette was wrong.

Bin Laden, they said, was standing in the room when the SEALs entered and they shot him, believing he posed a direct threat, given there were weapons in the room."

It should be noted that this account, reached after a review of all the principals involved, conducted by the head of US Special Operations Command, and dutifully reported by CNN only six months ago, is consistent with the account carefully reported and documented in the Esquire story, which appeared six weeks ago.

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